You Can't Keep Running Forever, Doctor,
by PaiigeCourtneyy
Summary: Because even you can't escape the inevitable. AU. In which Amy says something she shouldn't, and the Doctor realises something he should have known long ago. Based slightly-if-at-all off the scene between the Doctor and Amy in TATM. One-shot. Major Character Regeneration.


**You can't keep running forever, Doctor,**

Because even you can't escape the inevitable. AU. In which Amy says something she shouldn't, and the Doctor realises something he should have known was coming long ago.

* * *

There was no Rory this time. It was just Amy and her raggedy Doctor, lying side by side in a field full of daisies.

She felt like a kid again.

The sun was blazing overhead, not too hot, but a nice warm sensation that was coupled with a relieving breeze.

Both had their eyes closed, the Doctor with his hands clasped over his stomach, and Amy, with her hands resting freely by her side, occasionally playing with the dry tendrils of grass. It was a comfortable silence between them, as it had been for almost three hours.

They'd come here early, watched the sunrise, and then just lay there.

The Doctor had even prepared a picnic basket, (and bought the blanket they were currently on), but Amy wasn't sure how great his culinary skills were, and so was doubtful of whether the contents of that basket would be entirely edible, or even from earth.

Her worry wasn't uncalled for, considering the only food they he had ever made was fish fingers and custard.

Her favourite dinner/desert to this day.

"Doctor?" Amy questioned, growing tired of the silence and wanting to hear him say something in that voice of his.

"Yes, Amy?" He answered back, glad that she had finally, _finally_, broken the silence that he found tedious and annoying and just not fun, but knew that it was in that silence in which she found her peace and solace.

"How old are you?" She asked, knowing the answer, but just wanting him to repeat it. Again.

"Typical Scottish cheek." He muttered, smiling when he heard a giggle escape her mouth. "You already know how old I am, now stop asking."

"Fine." She lapsed back into silence, knowing how irritating it was to her Doctor.

The smile on her face was all the proof he needed to know she was doing it on purpose.

"Amelia." The Doctor frowned, staring down at her peaceful face. "Amelia Pond." There was still no response, no change in expression, only the rise and fall of her chest was the only indicator she was alive.

The Doctor sighed and flopped back down onto his back, keeping his eyes open as he watched the clouds travel past.

"You're watching them too." He said quietly, needing no visual confirmation to know that she was.

"Of course I am." She responds, just as quietly.

"Clouds… Fascinating, don't you think?"

"Not really… They're just water."

"Just water?! Amelia Pond! They are _not_ just water! Well, technically they are, but that's beside the point. They're water vapour. Which is invisible. But clouds… Clouds aren't invisible. You can see clouds. And they come in colours, and shapes and forms, like that one, look! It's like a lion." He pointed up at the sky then, up at an eastward bound cloud.

"A lion? I'd say it was more of a giraffe, really."

"Ah I love giraffe's, such funky colours and long necks. I could fit ample amounts of bow ties on their necks. Imagine it! A giraffe covered in bow ties. Now that'd be cool."

"Stop living in the fifties, Doctor, bowties aren't cool."

"Take that back."

"No."

"Right. Next time we visit another planet, I'm going to strand you there."

"You're not going to do that."

"I'm not going to do that. But I could."

"No you couldn't, you're too soft."

"Soft? I'm not soft, Pond, _you're _the soft one, look at you. All human-y and squidgy." To demonstrate said squidgy-ness, he reached across and pinched a portion of her arm.

"Hey!" They fell into a synchronised laugh then, both leaning up into a sitting position, Amy leaning on her arms for support and the Doctor sat upright with his legs spread out, staring down at his hands.

"Hands?"

"Hands."

"What about hands?"

"Look at them! Hands!" He held his hands up in front of her face, wiggling his fingers about.

"They're just hands."

"Yes, exactly, they're just… hands." He placed them back down, the excitement of them wearing off.

"Doctor?"

"Yes, Amy?"

"What's it like," She hesitated then, unsure of the question she was about to ask. He turned his face slightly towards her, indicating for her to go on. "Being a Time Lord?"

"Well, being a Time Lord's fun, you know – having the whole of Space and Time at my fingertips, sure gives me a lot to do. There are rules, lots of rules, nasty ones, stupid ones, smart ones, but that doesn't hinder the experience. But do you know what I think?"

"What do you think?" He looked at her then, face on, dead in the eye.

"I think… That that wasn't your real question."

"No, no it wasn't." She broke eye contact then, looking down. Almost ashamed.

"Well?" He probed, curious now as to what question was making her act this way.

"What's it like… being the last of your kind?"

Oh. That question.

"Lonely. Boring. That pretty much sums it up, really." Amy's head snapped up at the rather short confession.

"What? That's it? Just two words?" The Doctor shrugged; he could probably sum it up in one word to be honest, or perhaps even none. Silence was just as good an answer as any.

"Next." He said instead, refusing to say anything else on the topic.

"Excuse me?"

"Next. As in ask me the next question, I know that's not the only one you're thinking of." Slightly miffed that her first question hadn't been as thoroughly answered as she'd liked, she went ahead with the next question.

"What happens after you die? To the universe, I mean."

The Doctor shrugged, "Nothing really, life will just go on, as it always does."

"But we'd know, wouldn't we? We'd feel it though, right?" At that, the Doctor couldn't help but chuckle.

"A dear friend of mine once theorized the exact same thing. She said that if I ever died, then she'd know. That the whole world would know, feel it, and that planet Earth may just shiver. She was a good friend."

Curiosity got the better of Amy, and she had to ask: "Who was she?"

"Her name was Sarah. Sarah-Jane, she hated being called just Sarah. She had a dog. A robot dog, used to be mine, but I gave it to her as a present. K-9, he was called."

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. Next."

"How do you know I have more?"

"Because I know you."

"You mentioned something once about regeneration… What is that? What did you mean?"

"It's our way of cheating death, essentially. It's an ability that lets us, when we're either old or wounded, to 'renew' ourselves, become someone else. We're still the same person, of course, but we look different, act different, have a different personality. But we are still the same, have the same memories."

"Doesn't that make you practically immortal?"

"No. We can only do it so many times."

"Do you know, when it's about to happen? Can you make it happen at will?"

"Yes. Sort of. I could only make it happen if I knew I was dying, otherwise the body just does it automatically."

"How do you know?"

"It has a distinct feeling. My mind will become hazy; memories will begin to fade in the days leading up to it."

_Like they have been. Admit it, Doctor; you don't remember why Amy wasn't scared of you that first night you met. You don't remember the crack in her wall._

"I'll be tired a lot, lethargic."

_Like today. You haven't done anything but lounge around all morning, that didn't even frustrate you like it should have._

"And then I'll start to glow."

"Glow?"

"Yes, glow. No, not glow, of course I won't glow. It isn't glow."

"Well what is it then?"

"Not sure really, but it looks cool. My hands will start first, and then my arms and face, and then I pretty much explode."

"Explode? Does it hurt?" She asked, worry seeping into her tone.

"Nope, don't feel a thing." The Doctor lied, not wanting her to know what it _actually _felt like. He was dying, after all.

He once again lifted his hand up, in front of his face, inspecting it. It was looking more yellow that unusual, but his dismissed the thought as a trick of the light.

Until his hand jerked violently to the left, whilst his stomach simultaneously felt as though it had been pummelled with a sledge hammer, causing him to double over in pain.

"Doctor?" Amy exclaimed, reaching toward him.

"No! Amy... Stay... Back..!" He gasped, each word stabbing him in the throat.

He rose shakily to his feet, falling forward onto one knee several times, clutching at his chest, where is two hearts lay.

Eyes clenched shut in an effort to ease the pain, he didn't need to see to know she was reaching out for him still.

"Amy, you can't… You have to get back, this… Ugh… is dangerous. Please." He begged, and for once, she followed his orders, retreating several steps, all the while staring at him with panic stricken wide eyes, wishing there was something, _anything, _that she could do.

As he had explained, the small glow on his hands started climbing its way up his arms, creeping slowly towards the collarbones, the neck, the head.

"Should of... really seen this... coming... _ah_!" He grunted, hands balling up.

He smiled at her then, through the yellow, a light sheen of sweat visible on his forehead and cheeks.

"Amelia Pond." He rasped out, wincing. "Not many... get to see me… twice… How lucky… are you?" He winked, and then he exploded.

It wasn't a normal explosion, the shape of him was still there, but the yellow… _dust_ (for lack of a better word in her mind), flowed all around, showering her, yet not actually landing on her. She screamed slightly in fright when the picnic basket was picked up and blown away, combusting in mid-air with a fairly loud bang, the particles being carried off in all directions with the wind that had picked up.

The yellow eventually receded, going back to where it came, all the wind stopped and the field was silent.

And suddenly it wasn't her doctor stood before her anymore.

Well it was, strictly speaking, but he was different.

Different face, different voice, different thought process.

A different Doctor.

"Doctor?" She asked, timid, afraid of him for the first time since he showed up her kitchen all those years ago demanding food.

"Amelia Pond." He breathed, grinning, a perfect assortment of pearly whites.

Pausing in confusion, he ran his tongue over his teeth. "New teeth. Huh. It's always the teeth that confuse me."

"You're… different." She said, stating the painstakingly obvious.

"I am indeed. You don't have a mirror, do you? I want to see what I look like." This man, the 'Doctor', patted his head then, feeling for his hair. He let out a sigh of relief when he found the, albeit short, locks.

"I don't have a mirror, sorry."

"Oh. Well do you have a phone? You could take a picture. Yes! Take a picture!"

"Um o…kay." Getting her phone out, Amy quickly accessed the camera and pointed the lens toward him, "Smile."

The Doctor grinned, all teeth on display, waiting for the tell-tale snap before lunging toward her, grabbing the phone with glee as he flicked back to the picture of himself.

"Oh eyes, nice eyes, they're green. I don't think I've have green eyes for a long time. I'm _cute!_ And my chin! It's normal sized, and my nose is fine, yes, that's all dandy now what about the hai- I don't believe it!" He exclaimed, his grin becoming impossibly wider.

"What? What is it?" Amy asked, confused as to what has made the Doctor so happy.

"I've finally become ginger! Ha!"

* * *

**The last comment is referring to one of Matt Smith's first lines as the Doctor, and is in no way meant in an offensive manner. First Doctor Who fanfic, so I'm sorry it they're slightly out of character and this was slightly rushed so if there are errors don't forget to point them out to me! Also, the Sarah-Jane quote is from the episode 'The Death of the Doctor.' for anyone who wishes to know.**

**Thanks for reading, leave a review!**

**Nov. 3rd: Line updated, thanks to the fact HillywoodIsLife pointed out for me :)**


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